Since 2008, an independent look at challenges and opportunities in sports and financial investing, with occasional diversions as my mood takes me. Nothing is for sale, and this not a Profit and Loss report either. They're boring.

Monday, 18 March 2013

Two weeks ahead of Elite Eight Saturday, and Football Elite had its own special Saturday. Six selections, of which four were winners, for a profit on the day of 7.59 points - Matt's best day of the season by some distance. One loser on Sunday followed, but this service is now out of the red for the first time since September and four consecutive profitable weekends (10.76 points) supports Matt's decision to revamp his strategy, if not his selection methods. I say out of the red, rather than into the green, because after some 119 bets, amazingly the numbers I have are exactly 0.00. An impressive run.

Other big winners this weekend were Pete Nordsted's Drawmaster finding two draws from three matches and moving up to fifth, while Premier Edge moved up to sixth at the expense of Neil, who had something of a nightmare going 0 for 3 and dropping to seventh. The top four remained the same, backing the 'Lay The Draw' selection had one winner from three for a small profit, and the Bundeslayga had a good weekend with three winners from four selections. Premier Betting had a small profit, and Football Elite round up the non-losing entries. In the red, Al's losing run continues finding three non-draws, while Talkbet had a small profit, and Football Formbook a small loss.The XX Draws were up overall, but the Classic selections continue a poor run going 0 for 4 with all four games ending 2-0 (or 0-2) so at least the Under 2.5 bets were winners. The Extended selections had ten selections, losing one to postponement, and of the remaining nine, had three perfect (0-0) draws, and three more single goal matches. Aston Villa v QPR was a draw until the 81st minute, Pescara was goalless until the 88th minute, and Wigan v Newcastle was a draw until the 90th minute so it could have been even better.In the Bundesliga there were two selections, with one perfect draw in Hoffenheim v Mainz '05.

This week I am taking advantage of the International break and flying the entire Green All Over staff out for a ski trip in celebration of the 5th anniversary of this universally acclaimed blog which saw its inaugural post keyed on the 21st of March 2008 and now has 560,000 hits and counting.In its five years, this blog has seen a total of 1,518 posts, and to repeat my amusing little line from the third and fourth anniversary posts - "Not all have been hugely interesting admittedly, but the other 1,517 have been...". I wrote a year go:

Will the blog make it to five years? Possibly, if the (sensible) comments keep coming, and I can somehow find inspiration, and readers keep hitting. A year ago, I was looking forward to 250,000 hits. Today the count is 50% over that, 375,000 and counting. Next stop, half a million? Why not?

The blog continues to steer clear of P&Ls, which really don't make for an interesting read, and it will continue to seek out ideas from the news, forums, or other blogs.

A year on, and will the blog make it to six years? The comment regarding comments still applies, although I am getting better at simply deleting nuisance comments. It used to be said that imitation was the sincerest form of flattery, but in the blogging world, the fact that people continue to visit says it all really. Anonymous (of course, except that IP addresses are known) goes to the trouble of commenting on my rather interesting piece about round numbers and their impact on sports, and writes:

yawn zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Such incisive wit. It must have taken him almost as long to come up with that as it did for me to write my post, and of course he's been back since for more.Well why wouldn't he? Where else can you be so cheaply entertained? No promises on six years though. Unsurprisingly, the Super PC has dented my enthusiasm more than a little, and LADDAQ still has some way to go. Nothing lasts for ever. It's getting harder and harder to first find and keep edges, and second to make it cost effective to put in the time, often at unsociable hours, to do so.The last complete month's (February) basketball saw me 'make' close to £5,500, which sounds good, but divide that by (roughly) two for the Super PC, and consider that I was involved in a little over 100 markets, and is it all worth it? Something to ponder as I turn the lights out at Cassini Castle for a few days, but I'll be back, barring ski lift failures or ill-positioned trees. Stay warm.Here is the latest table in full;

About Me

I have had a life-long interest in sports and after studying Pure Mathematics with Statistics at secondary school, have been fascinated by odds and probability.
The first system I came up with was a simple one - back the favourite and double up after a loss until a winner. Simple enough in theory, and I told my Dad about it. Not being a betting man himself, he ran it by some of his colleagues, and came home to tell me that it wouldn’t work because a long losing run would mean that the bank would be empty. Then there was always the possibility that the winner would be returned at odds-on, meaning that the total returns would not match the outlay. Not what a ten year old wants to hear! Only slightly daunted, I then went on a search for the Holy Grail, the secret to riches that I knew was out there somewhere. Finally in 2004 I stumbled across an article about Betting Exchanges and four years on I am able to make a steady profit. I am at that age where I can start thinking about retirement and anything I make from trading sports will bring that day forward.